Nissaka-shuku

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nissaka-shuku (日坂宿, Nissaka-shuku^?) was the twenty-fifth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the city of Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

Contents 1 History 2 Ekiden 3 Neighboring post towns 4 References

[edit] History

Nissaka-shuku was located at the western entrance to Sayo no Nakayama (小夜の中山), one of the three difficult passes along the Tōkaidō. At the western entrance of Nissaka-shuku is Kotonomama Hachimangū Shrine (事任八幡宮 Kotonomama Hachimangū).

Originally, various characters were used for Nissaka, including 入坂, 西坂 and 新坂, as it had been nothing more than a small town located between Kanaya-juku on the banks of the Ōi River and Kakegawa-juku, a castle town that was an intersection along an old salt training route. When Nissaka-shuku was established as part of the Tōkaidō at the start of the Edo period, the characters for its name officially became 日坂.

The Tōkaidō Main Line, established during the Meiji period, was built to avoid the difficult pass and, as a result, the fortunes of Nissaka-shuku began to fall. It began to prosper again when Route 1 was rebuilt after WWII, with the new route running through Nissaka.

In 1955, the village of Nissaka in Ogasa District merged with the neighboring city of Kakegawa.

[edit] Ekiden

The city of Kakegawa hosts the Nissaka-juku Kago Ekiden (日坂宿駕籠駅伝) every year in April.^[1]

[edit] Neighboring post towns

Tōkaidō

Kanaya-juku - Nissaka-shuku - Kakegawa-juku

[edit] References